The Last Dream of my Soul
by Lady Aglaya
Summary: Ten years after the events of A Tale of Two Cities - Lucie Darney  daughter of Lucie and Charles  is still grieving for Sydney. The heartbroken beautiful young woman receives help from our favourite time traveller.
1. Chapter 1

_I fell in love when I was five years old and when I was nine years old he died. Ten years have passed since that day and whilst my family has ceased to grieve and the world has moved on barely noticing his passing, my heart remains irrevocably broken and the pain refuses to die. What was I to do but turn to a doctor?_

_I was known in my family as Little Lucie to distinguish me from my mother but there was really little need. I couldn't be any more different from mother than if I was a boy like my little brother Sydney. Sydney, named after my parents long standing friend Sydney Carton, and the love of my life._

_I cannot recall a moment in my childhood when he was not there. He was there right at the beginning of my existence at the very start of my memories with my parents. I thought of him as the same, my third parent. Even now I can recall Miss Pross' much repeated phrase in her prim annoyed voice "The child will not sleep until you kiss her goodnight". She was right, I would not and he would always come. Whenever I went into a room I would look for him and if he was there it would be like a bright light suddenly radiated from the corner he had usually exiled himself to. I would run to him and he would envelope me in his arms and the rest of the world would cease to exist. There was only us. At the time of course I wouldn't have defined it as love, at least not as I do now, to my young mind he was just simply my most favourite person in the world. My best friend. The one person who truly understood me. _

_The years have passed since his sacrifice and every waking hour my thoughts are filled with him. I tried to forget and carry on with my life but the white hot hollow pain in my chest refused to die and if anything over the years it expanded. As I grew into a woman my heart finally revealed to me why the pain would not leave me. I was in love. I was in love and I was sure that I would never be able to love another in this lifetime. There is only one person you can truly love like that and I was born too late for mine. My life died the day the blade took Sydney Carton. So why was I still here?_


	2. Chapter 2

"Why are you still here?" exclaimed the scrawny, weirdly dressed gentleman who I now found myself dancing with.

"I..I'm sorry but I don't believe we've met" I said.

Mother had dragged me to yet another ghastly society ball in the hope that I might find a suitable suitor, settle down and start a family of my own. I hated her getting her hopes up but she really should have had a clue when I rejected the last five men who had proposed to me in the last six months since my debut. She was not to be swayed and it was the first time I glimpsed the steely determined which lurked behind my mother's fragile exterior. So here I was dancing a quadrille at yet another ton party in order to please her and bored beyond measure. Until now.

I covertly glanced over my new dance partner. He was wearing the most odd clothes I had ever seen. A shabby tweed jacket with patches stitched at the elbow, a red bow tie (no cravat) and ….trousers. I must admit I was intrigued as to how this strange person was even admitted into Lady Durrington's house let alone her ballroom.

"No we haven't, not yet anyway, I'm the Doctor. Pleased to meet yo…watch it those are my toes you know. Can't just grow some new toes, at least not since that one time I tried in that experiment in Geneva and ended up creating a giant living oozey thing which well, can really only be described as a Blob. Hollywood went took that idea right out from under me – they owe me a fortune in rights for that idea."

"Doctor…blob…what…"

"And you are Miss Lucie Darney yes?"

"Well yes…but…"

"Excellent, you're not supposed to be here – come with me"

With that he spun us elegantly through the dancing couples and when we were safely at the edge of the ballroom he turned and holding my hand we run out and down the corridors of Lady Durrington's town house at some speed. I only managed to catch glimpses of the shocked faces watching our progress in alarm and horror and amongst them, my mother. I should have stopped then. I should have dragged my hand back and could the gentleman insane and made my way back to my mother to await yet another dull dance with another more suitable prospect. Yet the idea filled me with revulsion. Yes I was now well and truly ruined for all intents and purposes allowing a man to take me by the hand and run around with him in an eminent Lady's house was not the done thing. I would never be able to return from this….and that was why I held on to my strange Doctor's hand. I had no idea if this man meant me good or harm and yet inherently I sensed I could trust him. Whatever he wanted it would lift me out of this intolerable half-life I had been living for the last ten years.

However I noted that our progress seemed to be haphazard, we run up and down countless corridors and the Doctor kept shouting things like

"What, this isn't supposed to be here. Quick, this way! Huh, I was sure this was the way – back up"

"Look" I said breathlessly after we had been running around aimlessly for what felt like an hour. "Perhaps if you told me where you wanted to go I could help you. I am after all probably more familiar with the layout of this house than you are."

He stopped abruptly so that I went crashing into his back. He turned and looked down at me cautiously.

"We are going to the garden. I left my…transport there."

_In the garden? _ The thought echoed in my mind and whilst I felt I could trust this odd man there was in the back of my head the vague uneasiness that I had not thought this through. My desperate need to escape from my intolerable life masked the latent fear that I was allowing a stranger, a very odd stranger, to take me somewhere and I hadn't even bothered to ask where that might be.

"I know the way there" I said smugly crossing my arms over my chest. "First though you are going to tell me where we are going and what you want from me."

"Oh now you ask" he said clearly frustrated "They're always quite happy to run around without any questions up to a point and then there's always that question. For once you'd you lot would mix it up a bit, "Oh Doctor, where'd you get that cool bow tie" No?"

"Doctor please, I'm more than willing to come with you but I would like to know where that will be."

"Why are you willing to come with me" he asked shrewdly. It was his turn to cross his arms over his chest.

I was momentarily thrown off track and I felt my arms drop to my sides. Why was I willing to come with him?

"Because…there is nothing to hold me here anymore. Because…"

"Because you feel nothing but pain and emptiness and a sense that you just don't belong here" the Doctor finished for me.

"Yes" I said stunned that he was able to read my thoughts. "But how did you know?"

"Because Miss Lucie Darnay, that endless pain in your chest and the morbid sense of being half alive is a very common side effect of your condition."

"And what condition would that be? Heartbreak?"

"No" the Doctor scoffed "People often mistake it for "heartbreak" but no. My dear Miss Darnay what you are is displaced."

"Displaced?" I asked uncomprehendingly.

"Yes, displaced. You are displaced from your natural place in the space-time continuum. If you spend an extended amount of time in the wrong timeline like yourself than you develop a strong ripping pain in the heart of your core and a sense of things not being quite right. Of course time travelling is a little different but I won't get into the laws of time vortex dynamics and physics etc very very dull and I would be making it up most of the time. Shall we go?"

I was still dazed and was not really sure if I was any better informed than before. However I found my body had turned itself around and was heading back down the corridor we were in and turn sharply to the French windows which would lead out to the garden.

"Jolly good" said the Doctor who now overtook me and caught hold of my hand again.

We made our way through Lady Durrington's elegant Italian style garden. I barely noticed the various couples who had sneaked out for secret assignations for my attention was glued to a bright blue box that stood in the middle of one of the lawns. We appeared to be making our way towards it.

"Right" said the Doctor as we reached it and he dug out a key from his pocket. "Let's go and put you where you're supposed to be shall we." He opened the door and stood aside. "After you."

I hesitated for a moment. Then I stepped over the threshold and started my journey to Lord knows where.


End file.
